She supported the idea of appointing a senior person with impeccable track record and reputation as the chief ethical officer to win the trust and confidence of employees in the internal process of any enquiry related to whistleblowing.

The experts also warned corporates against trying to crush or discredit the whistleblowers.

They emphasised on the need to ensure a time-bound enquiry into any allegation as a safeguard against any harassment to alleged victims.

The issue was discussed during a roundtable conference on 'Whistle blower policy in India: Relevance and roadblocks', organised by media and event consultancy firm Straight Drive.

Experts from different walks of life, including the police department, lawyers, HR practitioners, senior representatives of corporate world and start-ups supported the importance of creating an amicable environment for people to speak their mind and heart on issues pertaining to workplace harassment, sexual harassment, grievances, scams and frauds.

"A large number of corporates are sitting on a tsunami of stories about their misconduct, unethical and fraudulent activities," Mukund Trivedy, Founder of Straight Drive said.

He said corporates must wake up now and encourage the employees to speak up and not suppress their voices if they want to avoid any #MeToo kind of uprising.

Sonal Mattoo, a legal expert on prevention of sexual harassment, said, "While the number of sexual harassment cases reported by women at workplace has come down over the years, the issues related to unethical or disrespectful behaviour is not addressed on priority as it has no financial impact."